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Tradition going up in smoke |
MULLINS — The last of this year’s tobacco crop went to market last week in the Pee Dee, where folks have become nostalgic about the golden leaves of autumn.Few farmers, perhaps 200 in the entire state, make a living by growing tobacco now.Yet for most of the 20th century, tobacco was the state’s No. 1 cash crop.Last year, it was sixth, behind chickens, landscaping plants, turkeys, cattle and cotton.A growing tide of smoking bans, persistent efforts to raise the cigarette tax, even aging tobacco barns, sagging in the countryside, are symbols that a part of South Carolina culture has changed forever.
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